When a group of theater professionals in Toronto decided in 1979 to create a series of awards to recognize the excellence of theater in Canada, it was natural that they name the new honors after Dora Mavor Moore, for she is widely considered the founder of professional theater in Canada. She has earned a place in the Dictionary of Literary Biography not so much by her writing as by her laying of the foundation for contemporary Canadian theater and drama through her work as an actress, a director, a teacher, and an indefatigable proponent of professionalism and dedication to the art of the theater.

Dora Mavor was born on 8 April 1888 in Glasgow, Scotland, but came to Canada with her parents, James Mavor and Christina Watt, in 1892 when she was four years old, her father having been hired as a professor of political economy at the University of Toronto. She...